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Patrick M. Wright and Scott A. Snell

Chapter 12 Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and Flexibility in Strategic Human Resource Management. Patrick M. Wright and Scott A. Snell. Introduction. “The pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals

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Patrick M. Wright and Scott A. Snell

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  1. Chapter 12Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and Flexibilityin Strategic Human Resource Management Patrick M. Wright and Scott A. Snell

  2. Introduction • “The pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals • Two types of congruence or fit: • Vertical fit-HRM practices and strategy process • Horizontal fit-HRM practices and resource allocation • SHRM is concerned primarily with developing the organizational capacity to adapt to changing environmental contingencies

  3. Constructs of Fit and Flexibility • Definitions • Congruence or fit • “The degree to which the needs, demands, goals, objectives and/or structure of one component with the needs, demands, goals, objectives and/or structure of another component” • Flexibility • “A firm’s abilities to respond to various demands from dynamic competitive environments” • High-flexibility • “Scan the environment, evaluate markets and competitors, and to quickly accomplish reconfiguration and transformation ahead of competition”

  4. Fit versus flexibility or fit and flexibility • Two relationships between fit and flexibility • “Orthogonal” perspective • fit and flexibility are opposite ends of the same continuum • “Complementary” perspective • variables are independent of one another • Differences between two perspectives stem from differences regarding the time frame and goals of the research

  5. Fit versus flexibility or fit and flexibility • Time frame • Orthogonal view concerned with firms at one point in time and argue that both fit and flexibility cannot exist simultaneously • Complementary view looks at longer time horizon and explores adaptation processes • Goals of research • Orthogonal concerned with description (what firms actually do) • Complementary provide prescription (what firms ought to do)

  6. Fit and Strategic HRM • Conceptualizations of fit in strategic HRM • Strategy--HRM practices fit • Different firm strategies require different role behaviors from employees and choose based on their ability to elicit the behaviors required to implement a chosen strategy • Strategy--employee skills fit • “Different strategies require different types of people…for effective performance” • Strategy--employee behavior fit • Fit between a firm’s strategy and the types of behaviors exhibited by employees • Different strategies call for different role behaviors

  7. Model of Strategic HRM • Figure 12.1 p. 211 • Top half fit component (Fit) • Firm seeks to fit HRM practices, employee skills and employee behaviors to the immediate competitive needs of the firm as dictated by the strategy • Lower flexibility component (Flexibility) • Develops the organizational capacity to respond to a variety of competitive needs other than those dictated by the current strategy

  8. Strategic HRM and Fit • Strategy formulation process consists of the mission and goals of the firm, followed by an examination of the internal resources and external developments that lead to the choice of a given strategy • The model depicts a process where the firm’s strategy dictates the required skills and behaviors • Desired HRM practices are then operationalized into actual HRM practices • Actual HRM practices developed influence the actual skills and behaviors of the human resources • Organizational performance is fed back into the strategy formulation process

  9. Strategic HRM and Fit • Assumptions • Decision makers are able to identify all of the skills and behaviors • Decision makers can specify and control all HRM practices • Environment is relatively stable or predictable so HR strategy decision makers can work in a way timely enough to ensure they will achieve a fit with the environment • Dynamic environments assumptions are harder to accept • Achieving fit over time may be dependent upon the extent to which flexibility exists in the system

  10. Flexibility in Strategic HRM • HRM scholars recognize the need to build flexibility into the firm • Framework focuses on three points: • Developing HR systems that can be adapted quickly; • Developing a human capital pool with a broad array of skills; and • promoting behavioral flexibility among employees

  11. Flexibility in Strategic HRM • Flexibility-based components expand in four ways • Some HRM practices are focused on more than just one fit • Recognizes a broader range of skills than those needed to implement the current strategy • Employees possess a broader repertoire of behaviors • Highlights the role of the participative infrastructure in developing, identifying and exploiting emergent strategies

  12. Flexibility and Strategic HRM • Two basic types of flexibility • Resource flexibility • Extent to which a resource can be applied to a larger range of alternative uses • Costs and difficulty of switching the use of a resource from one alternative use to another • Time required to switch from one use to another • Coordination flexibility • Extent to which firm can resynthesize the strategy • Reconfigure the chain of resources • Redeploy the resources

  13. Flexibility and Strategic HRM • Human resource flexibility • Flexibility in strategic HRM • Extent to which firm’s human resources possess skills and behavioral repertoires that can give a firm options for pursuing strategic alternatives • Extent to which HRM practices can be identified, developed and implemented quickly to maximize the flexibilities inherent in those human resources

  14. Resource flexibility and HRM practices • Extent to which HRM practices can be adapted and applied across a variety of situation • Extent to which jobs and situations the practice must be entirely redesigned or redeveloped in order to apply it to a different situation • Extent to which are rigidly applied across varying situations and sites

  15. Flexibility and HRM practices • HRM practice and coordination flexibility • Addresses the issue of how quickly the practices can be resynthesized, reconfigured and redeployed • Administrative systems are notoriously intractable (held in place) • Become increasingly bureaucratized • Develop and attain legitimacy • Political processes work to inhibit unobstructed change • Speed with which feedback about the efficacy of an implemented HR system can be obtained • Develop feedback systems that provide accurate and timely information

  16. Flexibility and HRM practices • Summary • Achieving fit is not impossible • Certain HRM practices are more amenable to timely changes than others • Certain HRM practices will have a more immediate impact on employee behavior than others • Some changes can be implemented quickly and with almost immediate feedback • Can vary in terms of their ability to be applied effectively across a variety of different situations

  17. Flexibility and Employee Skills • Employee skills and resource flexibility • Refers to the number of potential alternative uses to which employee skills can be applied • The speed individuals learn to perform new tasks is becoming increasingly important • Managers must develop flexibility

  18. Flexibility and Employee Skills • Employee skills and coordination flexibility • How individuals with different skills can be redeployed quickly in the value chain • Firms are achieving coordination flexibility of skills by using contingent workers • When the project is over workers are released and a new set of contingent workers is brought in • Workforce possesses a variety of skills overall resource flexibility increases

  19. Flexibility and Employee Skills • Flexibility and employee behavior repertoires • Flexibility that exists regarding employee behavior also determines the flexibility of a firm • “Skilled and knowledge workers not motivated are unlikely to contribute. Motivated workers who lack skills or knowledge may contribute with little impact on performance” • Boxall • “Can-do” goal-developing skills • “Will-do” goal-eliciting motivation and commitment

  20. Behavioral Scripts and Resource Flexibility • Extremely relevant to resource flexibility • Becomes institutionalized • Will decrease behavioral flexibility • Developmental experiences increase the behavioral repertoires

  21. Behavioral Scripts and Coordination Flexibility • Become more homogeneous, reducing firm’s diversity of perspectives • Enables the firm to synthesize and deploy the different perspectives in a way that maximizes decision effectiveness

  22. Behavioral Scripts and Coordination Flexibility • Summary • Variety of behavioral scripts increase the likelihood of the firm identifying new competitive situations and responding appropriately • Foundational skills allow a plethora of alternative behaviors to exhibit • Firm flexibility is increased

  23. Implications for Strategic HRM Practice • SHRM can play an integral role in determining the organization’s flexibility • Table 12.1 p. 221

  24. Implications for Strategic HRM Practice • Fit, flexibility and HRM practices • Strategic HRM simultaneously promotes both fit and flexibility • Simultaneous pursuit blends both fit and flexibility • Provide maximal effectiveness

  25. Implications for Strategic HRM Practice • Fit, flexibility and strategy formulation • Constant search for ways resources can be redeployed in changing circumstances • Mintzberg • Strategic programming-breaking down a goal into a set of action steps, formalizing those steps for automatic implementation, and articulating the results of these steps • Strategic thinking-taking information from numerous sources and integrating that information into a vision of what direction the business should pursue

  26. Implications for Strategic HRM Practice • Fit, flexibility and strategy formulation • Goal is to achieve fit among strategy and HRM practices, employee skills and employee behaviors • Easier to fit the strategy to the skills than to fit the skills to the strategy desired • Promote the development of a workforce • Development of a participative infrastructure

  27. Implications for Strategic HRM Practice • Fit, flexibility and competitive advantage • Seeking fit requires • knowledge of the skills and behaviors necessary to implement the strategy • knowledge of the HRM practices necessary to elicit those skills and behaviors, and • competitive advantage stems from resources or capabilities that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and nonsubstitutable

  28. Implications for Strategic HRM Research • Expands the types of research questions relating to the role of human resources in firm performance

  29. Conclusions • Framework and model provides a starting point for future explorations of the concepts of fit and flexibility

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